Mira Bharadwaj vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors
2022 Latest Caselaw 5644 Cal

18.08.2022
  Sl. No.668
    ap

                                   W.P.A. 12468 of 2022

                                         Mira Bharadwaj
                                               -Vs-
                                 The State of West Bengal & Ors.

                      Mr. Chandan Dutta.
                                             ... ... for the petitioner


                      Affidavit of service filed in court today is kept with
               the record.

                      The petitioner was an 'Assistant Teacher' of a High
               School, who retired on 30.11.2010. The pension payment
               order was issued on 08.07.2011. The gratuity amount
               released on 06.09.2011. The petitioner claims interest on
               delayed payment of the gratuity.


                      There is a considerable delay in filing of the writ
               petition, which the petitioner seeks to justify by stating that
               there is no statutory period of limitation and neither parties
               have suffered due to this delay. It is the submission of the
               petitioner that accordingly the petition should be allowed.

                      The petitioner relies upon an order in W.P. 17557
               (W) of 2017 (Narayan Chandra Saha vs. State of West
               Bengal & Ors.) wherein a co-ordinate Bench had relied
               upon the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Union of
               India vs. Tarsem Singh, reported in (2008) 8 SCC 648 on
               the issue of limitation relating to payment or refixation of
               pay or pension wherein the Apex Court had held that relief
               may be granted in spite of delay as it does not affect the
               rights of the third party.

                      In view of the above and after hearing the learned
               Counsel for the parties, I direct the Director of Pension,
               Provident Fund and Group Insurance, Government of
                                2




West Bengal as also the concerned Treasury Officer to
pay interest to the petitioner @ 8% per annum on the
gratuity amount calculated from the next date of her
retirement till the date of actual payment. Such payment
is to be made within a period of eight weeks from the date
of communication of this order.


       With these observations, the writ petition is
disposed of.

       Since, no affidavit-in-opposition has been called for,
the allegations made in the writ petition are deemed to
have not been admitted by the respondents.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)